Loco Logic

Question: If I wear compression while drinking a glass of wine, will I break even in terms of recovery from training?

In other words... Compression/enhance recovery + alcohol/delay recovery = 0, neutral, null, no effect.

That's some genius logic right there! New plan, starting now :)

After the half-mary, my legs and body recovered surprisingly fast and well. I allowed my Sunday long ride to be more mellow, but as of Monday it was back to business. This week and next are two pretty big weeks, then *gasp* a little recovery/taper for the Desert Triathlon. Holy moly, that's coming fast! Exciting!

Today's workout was a doozy. Again on the topic of (crazy) logic, today I threw out any exercise science logic in terms of combining strength training and endurance exercise and which should you do first, why, what's better, separate them, blah blah. Sometimes you just have to roll with it.

I set up my trainer at my gym so that I'd have entertainment. The guys at the gym make me laugh nonstop, so this was a wise idea; time never flew by so fast! I knew what I wanted to do on the trainer, but my overall workout became super random.... from bike to battleropes... (read on for full description)....

-45 min trainer with high cadence/speed intervals

-1 mile run

-20 min strength: few dynamic moves, then 4 rounds: 1 min battlerope, 10 overhead squats with full-body band, 20 renegade rows (10 ea side), 10 wall balls, 15 sprawl balls.

-45 min trainer with 3 x 8 min big gear/power intervals with rpms in 60s on 2 min recovery

-1 mile run

Done & stretch....

Ugh. Compression is ON because it's just going to get harder from. As for the wine.... :)

I'm sick so dreaming about working out

I woke up this morning with a tummy ache. The thought of coffee disgusted me, and all I could stomach was some dry cereal and a banana. It wasn't too much later that my stomach was empty, if you catch my drift. Yup, stomach flu. Then the fever of 100+ degrees hit.

Btw, I swear this illness is legit and not a result of going back on what I said in my last post about partying and drinking, aka I didn't go out again and I'm not hungover! I think Denner might think otherwise after I post he left on my FB, lol. But, maybe my body just wants to remind me what could happen if I decide to go out and drink too much. Ewww. No thanks! I prefer my health!

Anyways, I am a TOTAL BABY when it comes to being sick. Thankfully, my mom was around and willing to take care of me. She rocked it! Guess there are some perks of being single and living at home -- moms just have a knack for this stuff. However, I'm sure she was laughing in the background every time I yacked -- I'm quite the vocal barfer.

After the worst was over (I'm hoping), all I wanted was some crunchy chocolate chip cookies. So random, but they hit the spot and the five I ate are still in my tummy, so far :)

Another good sign: I now finally have enough strength to type and think coherently, so since I didn't get in the swim and run I had planned for today, I'll tell you about my awesome workout yesterday...

I'll preface it by saying working at a gym by the beach with a kick ass staff and cool clientele is the best motivation ever. Our gym is the opposite of the typical 24 Hour Fitness / mass fitness center (sorry people/employees at those gyms). SPI is like a home that's never over-crowded. Ok, enough bragging about my gym ;)

Monday workout:

1. 20 min light lower-body conditioning/warmup: single-leg squats, lateral walk w band, single-leg glut bridges on the ball (thanks D), inverted hamstring and lunges - reverse lunge and walking lunge. with all those, the goal was perfect form/technique! bam!

2. 40 min run: started with a few drills then an out-and-back run from my gym in Laguna Beach. Weather was perfect. I'm working on my stride and learning to strike underneath my center of gravity vs. strike in front of me, and it felt foreign but went well I think (having a personal videographer would have been nice to see if I was doing what I wanted to be doing haha).

3. 20 min high intensity strength circuit: 5 rounds: 250 m row (@ 100%), 1 minute rest, deadlifts at 8-RM, 10 inverted ring row (great for lats/swimming) and 100-touch jump rope. Last round was a 500 m row. The load I chose for deadlifts is great for developing strength, hypertrophy and power, and resting a minute before allows for full recovery to better achieve those things. It's like doing running repetitions where you fully recover between each.

4. Cool down including some functional movements, yoga-ish stuff, a vanilla protein shake with almond milk and watching other people bust their asses :)

Now that's my kind of workout. The only thing I'd change (in an ideal world) is separating the aerobic conditioning (run) and strength training time-wise to allow for max recovery and gains from each. But life ain't ideal when you gotta switch modes and head to school :)

Wow.... I actually feel a little better after writing this blog. Got my mind of the flu!

Real Life as of Late....

So now that the Kona fantasy vacation is just a distant memory, how about a blog on reality? Yes, I know, not as fun & appealing as Hawaiian photos with bikinis and beaches. Well too bad. That's life. Thankfully real life as I know it isn't all that bad. A lot is going on, and there's a lot to catch up on. Guess I'll just run down the list...

*Got sick after Kona. My first legit cold in maybe two years. But I only let it stick around for three days then I forced it to leave. That tactic actually worked! Which leads to the next major thing...

*Training! I'm doing it again! Yay! My focus is building a base, working on my weaknesses and, of course, having fun. It feels so good to be back at it. The weather was sh*t for a while then in true schizo fashion it turned into summer in SoCal! Of course, doing long rides with sunny skies & 80+ degree temps is ideal, but there's something to be said for crazy workouts in rainy, cold conditions -- builds character. Ha ha.

This ride, to the top of Modjeska Grade Road, was pretty bad weather-wise, but it was one of the best days I've had in a while even if I was soaking wet and couldn't feel my fingers and toes after the descent!

Overall, there's a lot going on in my training and planning for the 2011 triathlon season. I guess you could say I've grown as an athlete and coach, and that's certainly affecting what I am doing now vs. what the old me would have been doing (mentally and physically). But I'll save all that for its own blog post. Stay tuned (betcha can't wait, eh? riiiiight).


Moving on...

*Personal life. I've been searching for good balance among my social life, training, work and school. In October, things leaned heavily toward the social side. Oh well, I needed it, and so did some of my friends with whom I shared the good times. I set Nov. 1 as the "get my sh*t together" date. I think pictures tell the story best...


GIRLS NIGHT with Sara and Tatiana in Laguna Beach. Priceless night of fun. However, because we all try to be "quality athletes," I won't share the rest of the pics ;)

Tatiana's Halloween Party in Encinitas with the SD endurance-sports crew. Check out my last-minute costume that I made only hours before, the Orbit Gum Girl! "Dirty mouth?" (Thanks MJ for the pics)

James was Tatiana... classic! He fit in her clothes strangely well ;)
I love Halloween, but I was back to my grandma ways by the 31st; i.e. I stayed home handed out (and ate) candy, read a book, ya know. Of course I still had to dress up. I went with "Dead Barbie." Sydney was a bee, and you know my thoughts on bees, so I busted out my epi pen on her @$$ haha...
A Funday Sunday with BFF Courtney from SDSU at her new pad in Santa Monica. That area has a great workout scene, very motivating. Just too much traffic though...
View of the city. I prefer views on undeveloped land :/

Modeling shoot for ROAD Magazine in SD. Thomas and I were joking about how cold we were that afternoon, when in reality it wasn't even that cold...ah, effects of triathletes being in Hawaii for too long...
This picture, well, what can I say... impromptu arm-wrestling contest with my dad (he won, grrr!). Conclusion: I need to move out my parents' house haha...


*Last but not least there's the rest of my life: work & school. Hm, what to say. They're both keeping me busy! I just made the payment for my last semester of grad school, woo woo! As of May, I'm done foreva (that is, hopefully I make it out on time haha).

I've also been teaching a fitness class at my gym now, which I love doing. I will start teaching more classes this winter, after the semester ends. We do a lot of functional training in a circuit format, and the workout routines work you HARD from head to toe, incorporating everything from aerobic/anaerobic stuff to weights to body-weight exercises. Even I can only handle a 2-3 classes a week.

Inside peak of the rowing machine in our gym... oh how I love/hate those!

That's it for now. Thanks for reading :)

Keeping it Real

This guy who works at SPI always says to me, "Keep it real Tawnee." This weekend was a great example of doing just that.... I got a little taste of everything that makes me smile: solid workouts, friends and parties, Ironman on TV (look out for my rant), good food and good grades.

It started Friday morning with a killer 5-mile trail run with my SPI boss, Mike, through Laguna Beach. Mike, of course, is super fast and knows those trails like the back of his hand, so it was challenging at times to keep him in sight; my HR would get pretty high when I was chasing him at a sub-7 pace, but it was a great run and it put me at 25-ish miles for the week. Slowly getting that mileage back up there. He gave me lots of trail-running tips mostly in the form of "ohhh nooo, that's not how you run; you need to change x-y-z; we have a lot of work for you to do." Haha. I love it though... the more I can correct the faster I can get.

After that I caught my dad just as he was going to the gym, so I joined him for an hour or so of strength training and rowing.

So, with all that... I earned my Friday night splurge, which happened to be in the form of Beer Olympics with fellow kinesiology grad students. At first I thought it was going to be events like the beer mile, but, no, it was just straight up drinking games--beer pong, flip cup, etc., done in a surprisingly well-organized legit competition at a dive bar. Prior to Friday, everyone had been divided into teams representing a country, and costumes were mandatory. I was on Team Vatican City. And just fyi: It was not our intention to mock religion or offend people... all in good fun and we just wanted God on our side ;) I dressed up like a nun, and was joined by the Pope, two priests and another nun. Despite my lack of college-esque drinking skillzzz we managed to win. See, God was on our side :)

Team VC with our medals...

There was even Beer Jenga... a Team Japan member in action...
The Greeks showed up too (as did Germans, Team Thailand, etc)...

Saturday I felt a little hazy, so I did some chores and errands, skipped working out and was settled on the couch at 1:30 to watch NBC's Ironman special. (I was hoping it would possibly inspire me to work out after, but it didn't.)

And, now, I'd like to share my rant NBC's coverage:

First, any time triathlon is on mainstream TV, that's a plus. But...besides that, I wasn't impressed with the coverage. Maybe I'm biased because I'm obsessed with the sport, I don't know. They did a decent job covering the pros, but beyond that it's the same ol' format: stories of people who overcame some hurdle to get to Kona / those who are finishing just before midnight. Don't get me wrong, that stuff is inspiring and always brings tears to my eyes (like Kyle Garlett missing the swim cutoff), but here's the problem:

NBC fails to highlight a huge chunk of Ironman Kona athletes: the fit, healthy, hard-working AGers who are pulling off some damn impressive times. Those who earned their spots by living, eating and breathing swimbikerun while juggling careers and/or families and/or a life (or lack thereof ). I knew far too many of those folks racing out there this year and I strongly believe that demographic deserves its 15 minutes of fame.

Also, I loved watching Rudy Garcia-Tolson's story, he's just incredible, but they should have mentioned that he went on to compete in and FINISH Ironman Arizona just a month later. Kind of a big deal.

So, yea, after watching that, it makes me want to do my own TV special... follow around a Kona qualifier or two for a year leading up to October and then show America what your everyday triathlete puts into this one race. See the sacrifice that it takes.

Ok, rant done.

Because I skipped my Saturday workout, I failed to meet my 12,000 yds in the pool for the week... oops! Grand total of 10,000 by Sunday. But I did close to 5,000 meters on the rowing machine over the week, does that count? Plus, with all the strength-training I did, I was surprised how fresh my arms still felt for 3k in the pool on Sunday... I swam a couple timed 500s, going well under 8 min for each, a big improvement for me--that wasn't even possible about 6-7 months ago.

Sunday I also went on an ez/mod bike through Santiago Canyon. Half of it was purely just to "earn" another night of spluring on holiday yumminess, half was to see if I remember how to ride a bike. Well, I burned the calories, but my riding legs never showed up. It was pathetic. Hopefully I can become a cyclist again by March! Break is over pretty soon.

Last week I had finals (lots of essays, lots of pain... it's a blur now). traditionally, when finals are done I begin checking the school website waaay too much in anticipation of grades being posted. Finally, on Sunday, one grade was up: I got an A- in Stats! Probably the biggest relief ever considering I wanted to puke after that final, it sucked and made me feel dumb. But I did well anough to keep an A-. Still waiting on the other grades... aka still checking CSUF's website like a crazy OCD person.

After I snuck in a nap, Sunday night was Christmas Round One with my Grandpa (the race car-driving one) and that side of the family. We talked a little about our Sunday rides. My grandpa and uncles ride Santiago Canyon, too, but on a slightly different sort of bike. They always stop at Cook's Corner, and unfortunately I have yet to run into them or even catch them whizzing by... but it's bound to happen. Sounds like I just missed them on Sunday!

Anyways, their house is like a race car museum... I always find something new to look at when I go there, the memoribilia is insane. So is the garage... ya know... just some crazy motorcycles all over...